She studied his face. “I would like to do that.”
He smiled. “I’ve been thinking.”
“That is a dangerous activity where you are involved,” she said seriously.
He gave her a puzzled look. Surely that had to be humor? “Really?”
When she didn’t seem to understand him, he brushed it aside. “Look, Ellette, actually I want to talk about us.”
“Us?”
“Yes, you and me.”
“What about us?”
“I want you to be a permanent part of my life.”
“Permanent?”
He smiled. “Very permanent. I want you to marry me.”
“You need to marry a Human with noble blood.”
He leaned closer to her. “Here’s the nice thing about being King.”
She didn’t answer, just watched him closely.
“I get my way a lot of the time.”
“You want to marry me?”
“Yes. As soon as possible.”
“The Nazarien do not marry.”
“Maybe they don’t marry, but it doesn’t mean they can’t.” He eased back and gave her a mischievous look. “Unless of course, you’d prefer I marry a Human noble and bring her in as my wife to share my life, my future, and…my bed.”
Her fingers tightened against his. “I would have to kill her.”
“Kill her?”
She glanced out the doors of his room. “It is a very long way down onto rocks and then the ocean.”
Kalas let out a bark of laughter. “That would be a problem. People might frown on you assassinating my wives and well, let’s be honest, you probably wouldn’t succeed. You aren’t very good at your job after all.”
She glared at him.
“I’d be stuck with a boring noblewoman, forced to have children with her, and you’d be this pathetic ghost floating around the house trying to kill her all the time and failing at it. It would get very sad very quickly.”
“Is this the way Human proposals usually go?”
“No, usually when the King asks, the woman gives a resounding yes.”
She withdrew her hand. “Then if you want blind obedience, marry your Human.”
He smiled. “You know I love you, right? There is no other reason I put up with this.”
Her eyes clouded over. “It scares me how much you mean to me, how much I have come to need you.”
“How much you love me?”
“Nazarien do not…”
“Love, yes, but that’s sort of a ridiculous lie, isn’t it?”
“I find myself frequently aggravated with you, but no one is more important to me. Without you, everything would be without meaning. I guess that is love, yes?”
“I’ll take it.” He eased forward and pressed his forehead to hers. “Will you marry me?”
She sighed, then wrapped her arms around his neck. “To avoid committing murder, I suppose I have no choice.”
Kalas closed his eyes briefly in relief, then he kissed her.
EPILOGUE
Tyla drew her horse to a halt. They were within view of Temeron’s gates. She sat, studying them, a lump of emotion lodged in her throat. They gleamed golden in the dying light of the day, shimmering in the shadows cast by the mountains.
“Stravad Leader?” asked Allistar.
“Go on ahead, my friend. We’ll be there in a moment,” said Jarrett.
Allistar nodded, then signaled to his men and they set out.
Tyla smiled at her husband. “Thank you.”
He waved it off, bringing his horse close into her side. “Once we cross under those gates, everything changes.”
“It’ll no longer be the two of us.”
“I know.”
She held out her hand. “The adventures we’ve had together, Jarrett. Are you sure you’re ready for a boring life of being a husband and a father?”
He exhaled. “I’ve been ready the last ten years.”
She tightened her hold. “So have I. Besides, think of the stories we’ll have to tell our children and grandchildren. We’ll bore them with it until they repeat them themselves.”
“Children?”
She brought his hand to her belly and held it there. “Yes, children.”
His eyes widened and his mouth fell open. “Are you sure?”
“Fairly certain, yes.”
He blinked at her a few times, clearly unable to find his voice.
She laughed. “A speechless Nazarien. Will wonders never cease?”
“Tyla, I…just…”
“It’s okay, love. I know.”
His fingers tightened. “I will be here every minute this time, every second.”
“That might get annoying.”
He let out a strangled laugh. She’d take it. For so long, nothing had made him laugh. “How often do you get a second chance at happiness?”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “Not often enough.” She looked back at the gates of Temeron. “Come on, let’s go home.”
* * *
Quinn Laurel pressed his back to the cave wall. He could hear rustling outside, but he wasn’t sure if it was the wind blowing in from the ocean, whistling through the reeds, or something more menacing. Reaching out, he kicked sand over his fire, trying to douse it. He knew better than to light a fire, but he wanted just a moment of warmth, a moment to feel its heat against his chilled flesh.
Food was scarce, limited to the few things he could trap or steal from the homesteads, and fresh water was always a problem. Nazarien lived very sparse lives, but they never lacked for basic necessities. He’d been reduced to a scavenger and a thief, living on the edge of society, clinging to it.
“Laurel!” came the voice.
He recognized it. Halish. A man he’d ridden beside for months. Once Halish had promised to commit suicide at his command, now he hunted him like a beast.
“Laurel, I know you’re in there. I’ve tracked you for days now.”
Quinn tightened his hand on his sword hilt. He could probably take Halish. If he wasn’t dehydrated and exhausted. Fear would only allow him to catch snatches of sleep. Enough to stave off a collapse, but not enough to refresh his mind.
“Laurel, don’t make me come in there. If you do, I will chop your body to pieces and scatter it for the vermin.”
Quinn slumped against the wall. There wasn’t a back way out of the cave. He’d picked it because it was the first shelter he could find. It didn’t even have defensible space. “If I come out, will you give me an honorable death?”
“I will give you a quick death.”
Quinn shut his eyes, letting out a pant of frustration. “The Nazar deserves this fate, not I.”
“The Nazar defeated you. He decreed your disgrace.”
“The Nazar violated the tenants of our faith. He returned to his wife. He turned his back on us and the decree made by his own father. How can you let that go?”
“He has gone to Loden and is beyond our reach.”
Quinn thought for a moment. “The King of Eastern Nevaisser is not.”
“I will not go against the King. He has the protection of all Nazarien.”
Quinn’s lip twitched. He couldn’t let Jarrett win this. He couldn’t let him disgrace him all over again. “If the Nazar returns to Nevaisser, will you protect him too? Will you ignore the edict of his father, our past Nazar? Will you betray our people?”
“If the Nazar returns to Nevaisser, he is fair game. We will fulfill the edict of his father.”
Quinn chewed his lower lip. It was something, but it wasn’t enough. “Halish?”
“You’re wasting time, Quinn.”
“Just one more boon – promise it to me. You followed me once. You rode at my side.”
“I will not spare your life.”
“No, not that. Will you grant me one thing more?”
“Name it.”
“Extend the bounty further.”
“I will not attack the King of Eastern Ne
vaisser, Quinn.”
“No, not the King. Extend the bounty to the Nazar’s off-spring, any issue of his loins.”
“Why would I do that?”
“His children bear the taint of his betrayal. They are the embodiment of his disloyalty to the Nazarien. Promise me that if any of them should enter Nevaisser, you will hunt them down.”
Silence met his request. He waited, his fingers twitching over the hilt of his sword. When he couldn’t take it any longer, he shouted into the wind. “Halish?”
“I promise,” came the response.
Quinn closed his eyes, panting with relief. Then he straightened his back, drew in his remaining courage, and stepped out into the gathering dark to meet Halish’s blade.
THE END
THE FOLLOWERS OF ELDON
World of Samar: Book Eight
M L Hamilton
authormlhamilton.net
The Followers of Eldon
Copyright © 2015 M L Hamilton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed by a newspaper, magazine or journal.
First print
All Characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
The World of Samar series began so many decades ago, written first on a typewriter in my parents’ basement. I had a vision for where I wanted this epic journey to go, but I never dreamed that so many years later, other people would share the dream with me.
Thank you to my readers, the faithful, who have read so many pages of my world, and thank you to my family for helping me create it.
May Eldon’s light shine brightly in your lives!
I was born by myself but carry the spirit and blood of my father, mother and my ancestors. So I am really never alone. My identity is through that line.
~ Ziggy Marley
When you have robbed a man of everything, he is no longer in your power.
He is free again.
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
PROLOGUE
Kaelene hesitated at the door to the Human hospital, her hand on the handle. She peered through the glass, seeing a narrow, long room opening beyond it with a number of benches placed against the walls. People sat on the benches, huddled in ones and twos.
A hand reached over Kaelene’s shoulder and grabbed the handle. Kaelene flinched and released it, backing out of the man’s hold. She hadn’t even heard him approach behind her. He glared at her and barked something in the Human’s tongue, but Kaelene knew only a smattering of words and those weren’t going to do her any good here.
His look softened when he caught her confused expression and he opened the door for her, motioning her inside. Kaelene didn’t know what to do. She was afraid to go inside, but Mother was so sick, she needed help and the Nazarien in Kazden had rejected them. There would be no help from their own people, so Kaelene’s last resort was the Human hospital in the middle of the city.
The man made a motion, indicating she should go inside. She lowered her head and moved into the room, feeling all eyes turn on her. The man touched her shoulder and indicated the counter. A tall, spare woman with sharp features and a severe expression glared at both of them.
The man spoke to her, indicating himself, then Kaelene, then himself again. Kaelene didn’t know any of those words at all. The woman listened, then she picked up a leather bound book, set it on the counter and offered the man a quill. He scrawled something on the page below other scribbling and the woman motioned for him to cross to the opening that led beyond the counter.
Then she stepped back and opened a door behind the counter, indicating he should go through the door. The man gave Kaelene a half-smile just before he disappeared, leaving Kaelene facing the woman with the stern features and the severely bound hair. The woman wore a white dress with a white cap and an apron over the front of it. She eyed Kaelene up and down, then tapped her fingers on the counter.
Kaelene didn’t know what she expected. She looked at the other people waiting on the benches in their small groups, but they just stared back at her, not offering her any help.
The woman behind the counter barked at her. Kaelene flinched and lowered her eyes, staring at the floor. She wanted to retreat out the door again, but the memory of her mother writhing on the narrow cot, moaning in pain, kept her where she was.
Forcing herself to look the woman in the eyes, she spoke in Nazarien. “I don’t understand you,” she said in a half-whisper.
The woman cocked her head, considering. Kaelene dared to hope the woman might speak her language, but instead she pointed at a spot on one of the benches, shooing Kaelene toward it. Kaelene walked to the bench and took a tentative seat, hoping she understood her correctly. The woman nodded at her, then she went to the door and disappeared behind it.
Kaelene waited. She waited a long time.
The other people either left or were called behind the counter and through the door, but not Kaelene. The woman with the severe face and the white clothes did not return. Kaelene fidgeted a little, worry for her mother making her anxious. Should she leave? Should she stay?
She picked at her worn trousers and studied the toe of her scuffed work boot, but still the woman didn’t return. Shifting on the hard bench, she sat up straight, trying to see beyond the counter to the door. She wondered if she should go to the door and open it, looking for anyone that might help her.
Hunger and thirst gnawed at her belly. The only food she’d taken had been a heel of bread she snagged just before running out of the boarding house to find a healer. And now she realized she needed to void her bladder.
Just when she was sure she wouldn’t be able to wait any longer, the door behind the counter opened and the stern woman stepped out, leading another person. The stern woman motioned at Kaelene and said something to her companion.
Kaelene looked up hopefully and her breath caught. The second figure was male, but the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. He had short black hair and Nazarien medallions glimmered from his left ear. His features were too perfect to be anything other than full-blooded Stravad, but his eyes were a glacial white. He didn’t look at Kaelene, but his head shifted in her general direction.
Kaelene went still. Even across the distance between them, she could feel this man’s power. The air felt charged with a strange energy and she couldn’t take her eyes from him.
He wasn’t overly tall, but his shoulders were broad, the muscles in his chest straining the homespun shirt he wore. He said something to the stern woman and touched her arm. Her demeanor melted and she gave him a smile, then nodded and retreated back through the door, closing it behind her.
Kaelene glanced around, realizing that they were alone, but her attention snapped back to the man as he crossed around the counter and approached her. Although his eyes remained fixed at a spot somewhere over her head, he didn’t falter.
“I’m Talar,” he said in perfect Nazarien.
Kaelene felt her shoulders sag in relief.
“Nurse Redmond told me you needed a translator?” He took the seat next to her. He smelt of antiseptic, but underneath the hospital scent was an earthier, seductive spice. She wanted to lean into him, but she blinked her eyes rapidly a few times, trying to banish her reaction to this handsome stranger.
“My mother’s very sick. I think she might be dying.” The words almost choked in her throat, but she got them out. Her mother was the last person she had in the world and losing her would leave Kaelene completely alone.
“I see. What seems to be wrong with her?”
Kaelene wrung her hands, dropping her eyes from his. Even so, he hadn’t once made direct eye contact. She was beginning to suspect he couldn’t see. “Her heart beats too fast. She can’t stand up or it makes her faint. It’s also makin
g it hard for her to breathe.” Shifting on the seat, Kaelene faced him. “I don’t have much money, but I have a little. I just didn’t know if the hospital would take us.”
He gave a brief inclination of his head. “They might not. Relations with the Nazarien are tense here, but I can come with you. I have some skill at healing.”
“You work here?”
“Occasionally. I help out when they need more hands.” He gave a wry smile and Kaelene felt her heart pick up speed. His teeth were even and white. “What’s your name?”
“Kaelene.” She pushed a strand of brown hair over her shoulder and glanced at his face. She’d never seen a more beautiful man in her life. “Will you really come with me?”
“Yes, just let me get my pack.”
Kaelene watched him rise and walk to the counter as if his blindness presented no problem. Then he disappeared behind the door. Kaelene felt bereft at his departure, but chastised herself. Her mother might be dying and here she was lusting after a Nazarien man. Her mother would scold her for thinking it. She didn’t want Kaelene having anything to do with men, period, Nazarien men in particular.
She had to remember that as she waited, anxiously, for his return.
* * *
He wore a thick cloak, the hood pulled up, obscuring his beautiful features. Kaelene stole glances at him as they walked the streets of Kazden toward the room she and her mother rented.
Their landlady, Mrs. Tanis, hadn’t cared they were Nazarien when she rented them the room, as long as they helped with the cooking and cleaning. She also spoke Nazarien, which was an added benefit. In addition to helping Mrs. Tanis, Kaelene worked outside the boarding house, selling home-canned jellies and jams. Mrs. Tanis let Kaelene grow a few fruit trees off her back porch, as long as Kaelene provided the boarders with as much jam as they could consume during their morning meal.
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